Year of the Witch is the thrilling conclusion to your Demon Heart trilogy. Were you able to accomplish everything you set out to with this series?

I found working on the third book of the trilogy to be a very enjoyable experience. I loved exploring Naoko’s character and learn about her personality and how her unique constitution allows her to be a kind of a superhero with a vulnerable human side. I did feel that I have accomplished all I wanted in this novel, given its new level of exoticism and complexity. It was fun to place my characters in different locals, which show great diversity of landscapes, customs and traditions, as well as the mysterious forces of nature, which humans are not yet able to understand. This novel definitely completes the adventures of my main protagonist Naoko.

Were you surprised at Naoko’s character development throughout the series? Or did everything develop as planned?

I think Naoko has matured and definitely changed as a person in comparison to the first and second books. She has a unique demonic ancestral memory, which allows her to consult the spirits of all the members of her demonic lineage, and of course her primary ancestor, the immortal demon Yoshiko Nagase. I planned this novel very carefully, and wanted Naoko to maintain her strong moral values, while exploring her demonic side for the thrill of combat against the evil forces. Being a creature of darkness and light, she is and must be a killer when situations demand blood to be spilled. I wanted this book to be very entertaining as well as informative, and I believe I managed to include in it all that was necessary for the readers to embark on another adventure.

Writers often have to make difficult decisions about what to cut and what to leave in during editing. Was there a particular scene that was difficult for you to cut from this book?

Yes, there is a process of elimination that every author has to initiate when there is a lot of information presented in the novel. In this particular book, I had additional planned scenes of Naoko’s random confrontations with dark magicians as well as serial killers and psychopaths. I had one scene where Naoko’s daughter Satori goes on a school trip around exotic island and the ferry is taken over by a group of terrorists and they are cruel and vicious and shoot her to prove their resolve but being a demon hybrid, Satori survives and Naoko arrives on the ferry, exacting a bloody revenge. After some thinking, I had to cut the scene out due to the large amount of data I already had. It was a powerful, emotional scene but I saved it for another possible situation in the future. So sometimes cutting is indeed necessary.

Do you have plans to continue this series, or characters, in some way? Or does it end here?

I believe that there is definitely a room to maneuver in these series and I actually developed a possible idea for another book that would stand on it own but be relatable to the Demon Heart Trilogy. This rough draft, that is still under consideration of development would involve Naoko’s daughter Satori as the main protagonist. I am currently working on another, different book, but I want to give this idea a very strong consideration. I am very happy to be able to conclude the adventures of Naoko in a trilogy form and will look forward for many other interesting possibilities.

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